Sloth Plodding for the Cure

There are Races to Cure breast cancer, and divers other cancers, and for MS, and who knows how many other diseases. And there’s ribbons of colors galore to call for the cure of this or that disease. And there’s billions spent on finding cures for hundreds of diseases. And there’s programs, and support groups, and institutes and research grants, and studies out the ying yang for diseases that affect relatively few people. Autism affects very few, but is studied ad infinitum. And there’s an outpouring of emotion and commiseration with the victims of the disease and the parents and relatives. Need I recount disease after disease for which people are Racing for a Cure? Does anyone even walk for a cure? No, they Race!

And just last evening I took my 88 year old buddy to the hospital, and left him there, in the good graces in one of the most incredible technological marvel of mankind – the American Health Care System. And I’ve used hospitals in Prague and in Mexico, I can compare in reality, not just studies. And so he’s to be kept overnight. Well, frankly, I think it’s more than that. For you see, he’s caught the most dreaded disease of all, Old Age. He’ll be 89 within weeks, I hope. But the obviousness of it all is now apparent. And I’m depressed, but still, realistic. It’s his time, maybe. Maybe modern medicine can cure him of what ails him, for they sure do seem to have a lot in their arsenal.

And then there’s the gay “disease.” Yes, that’s what it is called, by many. Maybe even all heterosexuals, to one degree or another. A disease that has no known provenance, and is said to be both inflicted upon the victims by unwitting parents, or something else, maybe, and also an affliction chosen by the victims. It’s said to be genetic, hormonal, predisposition, environmental, prenatal, postnatal, toilet training, father, mother, uncle, aunt, birth order, etc, et al, and onward, and of course a moral choice. And an evil one at that! Consider, a “sickness” that is evil; what other “illness” is evil? Weirdly, without a shred of compassion towards the victims of this allegedly horrible disease that will bring about the downfall of civilization itself if anyone says one nice thing about the “sufferers” of this “horrid” thing which we think is just peachy. And often all of the above, simultaneously. It is the only disease or illness, sickness or condition which the “victims” choose to catch. It is also the only disease or sickness, or psychological condition which wants rights of some kind. For it was certainly the only illness which was illegal to catch. And it needs two people, too, apparently. Without two of us giving each other “symptoms,” I guess you could call it, there’s nothing wrong at all. Indeed, if we don’t give each other symptoms people seem to be happy. The weirdness of this idea is what befuddles gay folks. We’re just unable to answer the Babel of discussion, for we keep saying www.borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com – and the rest of you, well, you’re undecided, but will do nothing about it. Except bleat to we who say, “Nuts.”

For there’s few people rushing to find the cure; indeed, seems no one at all. Or so rarely, that “recent” studies are from 1948, 1960, 1978, 1991, 2000, 2003. Yah. And such studies studied all of a 100 or less people. Quite amazing data base you all got there. Actually, no one seems to be looking for the cause,w hich one supposes is required for cure, no? For everyone has their favorite cause, and everyone is right. Except us of course, for that’s our agenda, and that’s said to be bad. No, they just demand we repent and pray it away. Sure, faith healing, of a Church of Christ Scientist sort. Prayed away by a people whom don’t seem to think we’re sick at all. And prayed away by people who aren’t really welcome into any church to get a dose of prayer. It seems to be a home study project. With only one sentence: there in Leviticus, along with shrimp eating. Weird.

So why don’t our obstreperous opponents call for mega studies so that they can find the cause, and thus find the cure? Or are they just too busy making a living off of stomping on us in every which way they can conjure up to bother? Why are they like sloths plodding to get nowhere? You would think they’d be racing. Ah, no, but Wisconsin which is in the midst of an economic uproar involving thousands taking over the state house, is now joining the states trying to stomp on what little gains we made, and up there it ain’t much.

Here, some science, a pitifully small dash of it, and no plans for more.

A chemical in the brain controls sexual preference in mice, according to scientists in China. Male mice bred without serotonin lose their preference for females, a report in Nature says. The researchers say it is the first time that a neurotransmitter has been shown to play a role in sexual preference in mammals. Experts have warned about the dangers of drawing conclusions about human sexuality. The research team first bred male mice whose brains were not receptive to serotonin.

Snip

A series of experiments demonstrated that these mice had lost the preference for females shown by unmodified males. When presented with a choice of partners, they showed no overall preference for either males or females. Any potential links between serotonin and human sexual preferences must be considered somewhat tenuous”

When just a male was introduced into the cage, the modified males were far more likely to mount the male and emit a “mating call” normally given off when encountering females than unmodified males were. Similar results were achieved when a different set of mice were bred. These lacked the tryptonphan hydroxylase 2 gene, which is needed to produce serotonin. However, a preference for females could be “restored” by injecting serotonin into the brain.

The report concludes: “Serotonergic signalling is crucial for male sexual preference in mice. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a neurotransmitter in the brain has been demonstrated to be important in mammalian sexual preference.”

Sexual behaviour in mice is thought to be driven by their sense of smell.

Professor Keith Kendrick, a neuroscientist at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, said: “In terms of having potential relevance to understanding human sexual preference/orientation, we are of course far less influenced by odour cues in this context than mice are.

“There is some very limited evidence for altered responses to selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in the brains of homosexuals, but we have been using psychoactive drugs which either increase or decrease serotonin function for quite some time now, and while effects on sexual arousal, impulsivity and aggression have often been reported, no effects on sexual preference/orientation have.

“At this time therefore any potential links between serotonin and human sexual preferences must be considered somewhat tenuous.”

But why only such a small study? If this is so interesting, if this is so important, apparently to everyone, gay and straight, why is this thing not studied like the Manhattan Project? Instead we get the Manhattan Declaration, which is essentially a blue print for stomping gays out of existence. Good luck, fella’s.

A group of 90 healthy gay and heterosexual adults, men and women, were scanned by the Karolinska Institute scientists to measure the volume of both sides, or hemispheres, of their brain. When these results were collected, it was found that lesbians and heterosexual men shared a particular “asymmetry” in their hemisphere size, while heterosexual women and gay men had no difference between the size of the different halves of their brain. In other words, structurally, at least, the brains of gay men were more like heterosexual women, and gay women more like heterosexual men. A further experiment found that in one particular area of the brain, the amygdala, there were other significant differences. In heterosexual men and gay women, there were more nerve “connections” in the right side of the amygdala, compared with the left. The reverse, with more neural connections in the left amygdala, was the case in homosexual men and heterosexual women. The Karolinska team said that these differences could not be mainly explained by “learned” effects, but needed another mechanism to set them, either before or after birth.

>>So a horrible, evil, civilization threatening disease, and we who allegedly catch it ourselves are supposed to solve it all ourselves, or be forever condemned. And no one will do a study bigger than 90 people? Weird. Just weird. What a bunch of sloths.